Senior Design Projects

ECS193 A/B Winter & Spring 2021

EMPOWER/EMPODERAR

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Leigh Ann Simmons
UC Davis Department of Human Ecology

Project's details

EMPOWER/EMPODERAR
Adherence to prenatal physical activity (PA) guidelines is low among all pregnant people (<15%) and tends to decline as pregnancies progress. These low rates of physical activity (PA) during pregnancy are concerning given the recognized benefits of PA for pregnancy outcomes and recommendations from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) that all pregnant people engage in a minimum of 150 minutes of PA weekly. Although young adults have high penetration of eHealth use, or using mobile and smart phones, internet, and social media for pregnancy-specific information, few previous interventions have used technology to increase PA among pregnant people, and no mobile applications have been developed that prescribe personalized prenatal PA based on the user’s daily physical and/or mental well-being. Our team aims to fill this gap by developing the EMPOWER/EMPODERAR. This digital application will prescribe PA that is responsive to the user’s daily well-being as assessed via a brief screening while supporting weekly goal-setting to help meet ACOG guidelines for prenatal PA. We envision that the personalization algorithm (see Table 1 for personalization factors) for this application will be adapted based upon the conceptual approach used in the personalization algorithm from the Sponsor’s current mHealth trial of diet during pregnancy and postpartum (R01 NR017659 - Simmons, PI).
Students working on this project will collaborate with the Sponsor and her team to design a prototype application for EMPOWER/EMPODERAR, which could be used as an iOS or Android application or as a web application running in a browser. The Sponsor has approximately 60 video recordings of varying lengths (1.5-10 minutes) currently in production (video production will be complete in January 2021). Each video has multiple tags that match the personalization factors in Table 1 (see PDF). The Sponsor will provide the daily survey and calculations based on responses that students will translate into an algorithm that collates 2 or more videos to produce a personalized PA prescription for the day. Additionally, the Sponsor will provide students with guidelines for generating application-based and SMS prompts/reminders and encouragement to exercise, as well as messaging to provide positive feedback for completing the daily prescribed PA and meeting weekly goals. Lastly, the students will create an interface for one wearable fitness tracker to be determined (e.g., Garmin, Apple watch).
(1) A visually pleasing and end-user friendly working prototype of EMPOWER/EMPODERAR as an iOS/Android application that also can be utilized as a web application in a browser; (2) personalization algorithm that integrates ~60 videos; (3) daily survey with calculations linked to personalization algorithm; (4) managing and sending notifications (reminders, feedback, goal tracking); (5) interface with wearable fitness tracker; (6) maintaining relevant information in backend databases; (7) iTunes and Google Play Store integration for beta-testing; (8) clear and thorough documentation of source code.
HTML, CSS/SASS, JavaScript, MySQL, Python/Django, Swift, ObjectiveC, Bilingual English/Spanish
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30-60 min weekly or more
Client wishes to keep IP of the project
Attachment Click here
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Team members N/A
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